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The whole 64-bit only thing is probably the weakest part of the rumor. It just doesn't make sense to expend so much effort when only the heavier applications need more RAM addressing.

Agreed, and I don't see them dropping support at this stage for the first generation Intel Macs which use the 32 bit processors.
 
Wow, calm down, did you even read what the article said?



It makes sense for it to be Intel only. I hope it will be, so that they can remove all of the PPC code. As for the 'no new features' thing, I don't mind, as long as Leopard has Resolution Independence by then.

This actually makes sense. During WWDC 07', they requested from developers to be ready in so many months for the resolution independence enhancement.
 
I own a technically supported Power Mac G4 - a Sawtooth w/ Sonnet 1.0 GHz CPU upgrade - and Leopard runs just fine. I've moved from 10.5.1 to 10.5.2 and now 10.5.3 with no major problems. Performance is comparable to Tiger.

And I'm guessing you have an original graphics card in the Sawtooth that does not attempt Core Image effects? Original hard drive too? Try adding additional hard drives and see how Leopard reacts. You won't be happy, trust me.

And, I'm sorry, but the "Performance is comparable to Tiger" comment on PowerPC Macs, especially G4s is unbelievably laughable and I own lots of Macs, some Leopard supported, some not but nonetheless with Leopard installed. From my experience, I just find that too hard to believe. Sorry.
 
I think it is getting time to drop the cat theme. If you are having to start using Snow Leopard you know you are exhausting the possible names.

How about ending on Lion? One of the most recognised and prestigious of all the cats.
 
One More Thing . . .

We've ported a few of our major applications over to Windows.. and as it turns out, while people really enjoy having iTunes and now Safari to use while in Windows... what people really want is to use these great apps in OS X.

Folks are really not happy about Vista.. Folks are even more unhappy about Vista Certified machines that can't run the full Vista Experience, and the fractured and confusing experience of Ultimate, Business, Home, 64, etc.

Hell has frozen over yet again...

Introducing Snow Leopard: Generic X86 version of Leopard to become available that will run on ANY Intel powered Vista Compatible Intel Machine... $129.. Available on Machines THIS holiday season from Dell, HP, Asus, etc. Available Retail for everyone with Vista Compatible certified systems in January.

We've partnered with ALL major Intel partners to give full driver support in 10.6 Snow Leopard for all Vista Compatible systems ever sold with the MS Vista Logo Program. All of these users will have the same user experience, the same great pre-bundled applications that Mac users have grown to love... right out of the box.

Steve will bring out Michael Dell... and show that all of the demo's he showed during the keynote were done using a Dell desktop. Dell will talk about the opportunity users now have. Steve will thank Michael and then review the keynote notes.

People will be loving iPhone all over the world, now they can love OS X all over the world much faster than Apple alone currently has the ability to get out there.

With Me services and the OS X App Store the migration will be profitable, a revenue stream will be there for Apple even though they didn't sell the hardware. They will remind that iLife/iWork can be bought and will run on the 10.6 Snow Leopard just as wonderfully as they do today on 10.5.

Apple won't exit the hardware business. The Apple store is a great model the industrial design that core Apple customers love, and the industry as a whole admires. Mac Pro, iMac and MacBook/MacBook Pro line will stay. Mac Mini will go away, instead of bringing your own Keyboard, Monitor, and Mouse ... you can bring any vista compatible machine along for the ride :)

Bootcamp will be useable on these machines as well to help with the install and migration. Rosetta will be the only missing piece for the Snow Leopard build. No PPC applications will run on the Snow Mac. (Which isn't an issue for most folks with all major applications now being ported to Intel)

Checkmate!

I think with this move, Apple could more than double their worldwide market share in 1 year. 10.5 Leopard will stay up to day and have feature parity with 10.6 Snow Leopard (with the exception of features that require new hardware), although Snow will no longer support installs on PPC machines.

10.5 Leopard users can upgrade to 10.6 Snow on their existing hardware for $50. (for most users there will be no need for it).

Together the parallel development of 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard will mark the end of Apples support for the PPC line of computers.


Thoughts?

While Apple will have to do this at one point if they want to replace Microsoft as the de facto OS... I don't think the time is now.

To make clones work, it is most effective if you have a critical mass of demand and users. Because once Apple starts selling software on generic hardware, the software will have to be able to support itself through sales. Otherwise your revenue shrinks as the market grows through cannibalization. Even if Apple can survive this cannibalization, they will take hell from shareholders for throwing away money.

So two things have to happen:
1) They reach a certain level in marketshare. Enough that the growth in software sales will at least balance out the loss in hardware sales. So they can't do this too early, or too late for it to make business sense.
2) They need to see Mac hardware sales reaching a plateau. They have no reason to make the OS generic if sales growth of their hardware continues to outpace the market in general.
 
Interesting, nobody thought it would be named Snow Leopard. Regardless, I wont be buying this one. Im waiting for Lynx or whatever comes next.
 
I think it is getting time to drop the cat theme. If you are having to start using Snow Leopard you know you are exhausting the possible names.

How about ending on Lion? One of the most recognised and prestigious of all the cats.

I am sure Steve has a a team put together to make the decision on which species of animals to exploit next. I can't even come up with an idea. The cats, at least to me, have yet to get old. There are still some pretty good cat names out there.
 
I predict OS X 10.6 Cougar. Snow leopard is too weird....

Edit: Although snow leopard sounds weird, it could very well be true. Remember the day before MWSF we were all like MacBook Air? WTF? What a dumb name! Now it sort of works after hearing it so much!
I'm not saying that I think Snow Leopard is a good name or anything, but we have to acknowledge it's a possibility.

Also, we need to think about the Apple homepage for WWDC...there won't be two HUGE things. Remember last year after WWDC the new Leopard page they made? That was designed to steal the thunder. Apple won't give MANY details about its upcoming OS while at the same time trying to show off the new iPhone. Both of these things will be huge, and so 10.6 most surely won't be thoroughly discussed about on Monday. Just my thoughts...take w/ grain of salt.
/edit
 
I've only just seen this and it seems mad to me. It's WAY too early to ditch PPC (although I've now upgraded) and, if they get rid of Carbon altogether, most of the major programs will not run at all (including iTunes :D;) ).

This would be mad and severely limit the number of people upgrading, therefore creating far more of a two-tier system of users than as of current (for those that don't pay for Tiger, Leopard, etc).

Not to mention that the new Windows is slowly progressing and looks like it could actually be quite good (although I know it won't) - which means that Apple needs to add loads of 'cool' features to keep up. Nobody notices the 'under the hood' improvements - it's simply not a good enough incentive for the average person to upgrade. And speed/stability is something that should be there in Leopard (it's almost there with each 10.5.X release).

Unless the upgrade is free, which is a possibility.

Totally nuts. And too early. Way to early. :eek:
 
Here's the real scoop: Remember the invite with the split Golden Gate? It means Mac OS X will be split into 2 distinct lines. The current Leopard will not be immediately discontinued or replaced. Instead, a Snow Leopard, lighter version of Leopard, will be introduced. This lighter version of OS X will be aimed to consume less power, take a smaller footprint, support mobility in best ways possible, and be optimized for touch interfacing. Apple will use the Snow Leopard in mobile devices such as phones and iPods, tablets and perhaps even some sub-pro laptops. Leopard will continue to be the desktop OS X standard.

You read it here first.
 
What if its the Apple version of Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and needs Cocoa touch for a touch operating system?
 
I don't get this, surely if Apple keep changing the way for developers to write their applications (think 64bit Carbon and Photoshop), why should they keep developing them for such a small platform?
 
I don't get this, surely if Apple keep changing the way for developers to write their applications (think 64bit Carbon and Photoshop), why should they keep developing them for such a small platform?

Because its no longer a small platform.
 
The fact that Ars Technica who never usually get in on the Mac rumors game are saying they have details about this I think it's simply gotta be true. Some new sources just only print the truth.

I really like the idea of calling it Snow Leopard. It clearly stating in the name that this is just an enhanced new version of Leopard rather than a new OS. I dont think they will charge full price for it because of this.
 
I don't get this, surely if Apple keep changing the way for developers to write their applications (think 64bit Carbon and Photoshop), why should they keep developing them for such a small platform?


Hahahahahahahahahahahfhahahahahahahhaa

Apple's Market Cap as of June 5th 2008 163 Billion

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahhahah

Folks we have a new definition of small
 
Macs marketshare <10%
Windows marketshare >90%

That is small.

And unless these professionals need Mac only applications as well such as Final Cut, surely the majority will be running Windows, due to the ability to build a small, upgradeable, powerful computer, for peanuts.

I ask again, why keep developing for a platform if they keep changing the requirements every few years.
 
The fact that Ars Technica who never usually get in on the Mac rumors game are saying they have details about this I think it's simply gotta be true. Some new sources just only print the truth.

I really like the idea of calling it Snow Leopard. It clearly stating in the name that this is just an enhanced new version of Leopard rather than a new OS. I dont think they will charge full price for it because of this.

I've long since learned to avoid outright denial when reading a rumor regarding Macs. Most people tend to think that Apple will simply following the path set by another company when in truth a Hallmark of Apple is doing things that other companies didn't have the foresight to do.

When the iMac first shipped people couldn't believe Apple shipped a computer without a floppy drive.

Being a smaller market than Wintel Apple's able to move in directions that Microsoft cannot follow. PPC support may indeed be axed in 10.6 or it could remain but what's clear is that time is running out for PPC and Carbon is all but in stasis.

I think Apple's on the right path. End the confusion...move the platform to Intel for safe haven and devote the resources towards leveraging Cocoa and improvements in compiler technology. In above all remember you cannot please all the people all of the time.

Macs marketshare <10%
Windows marketshare >90%

That is small.

And unless these professionals need Mac only applications as well such as Final Cut, surely the majority will be running Windows, due to the ability to build a small, upgradeable, powerful computer, for peanuts.

I ask again, why keep developing for a platform if they keep changing the requirements every few years.

Where are you getting your numbers from?

Can you tell me what comprises the Windows marketshare? I.E how are White Boxes, and DiY parts accounted for? If a Server runs in a virtualized environment how is that accounted for since it could be running a plethora of OS including Redhat, Suse or more. What percentage of Windows boxes are used for server duty versus consumer or business level?

Thanks
 
Here's the real scoop: Remember the invite with the split Golden Gate? It means Mac OS X will be split into 2 distinct lines. The current Leopard will not be immediately discontinued or replaced. Instead, a Snow Leopard, lighter version of Leopard, will be introduced. This lighter version of OS X will be aimed to consume less power, take a smaller footprint, support mobility in best ways possible, and be optimized for touch interfacing. Apple will use the Snow Leopard in mobile devices such as phones and iPods, tablets and perhaps even some sub-pro laptops. Leopard will continue to be the desktop OS X standard.

You read it here first.

I believe this. Great post.

:apple:
 
Maybe Apple are taking a leaf out of Intel with their "tick tock" approach. One release of an OS (ie: Leopard) will introduce a pile of new features while the next will be a code clean-up with possible minor features added in (like resolution independence or ZFS).

I'm sure the OS could do with a big clean-up, after the PPC to Intel transition and all that. They'll probably also be laying the foundation for multitouch in the OS.

And the name "snow leopard" is a perfect name for a cleaned up version of Leopard.
 
If apple were to drop carbon from the system, theres nothing stopping them from creating a plugin to help those apps that still use carbon. kind of how they had rosetta.

Makes perfect sense to me. They had Rosetta to handle the transition from PowerPC to Intel. Why not have something to help out while transitioning from Carbon to Cocoa?

If this rumor is true, who's to say that they haven't talked to Microsoft and Adobe about this? Considering they would be under NDA, they couldn't make any public statements about it. Giving them a Rosetta for Carbon would allow them to make a new version while users would be able to the existing version. (I don't know the tech details of Cocoa v. Carbon, so please excuse my ignorance if this wouldn't be possible.)
 
And sexy too

Then there's always "Cocaine Kitty"... can run commercials with a Smirnoff ad playboy bunny circa 1968 in a white fur thong bikini cozying up to the "Hi, I'm a Mac" guy while the PC Bill Gates clone is acosted by Ruth Buzzi reprising her "Gladys Ormphby" character and hitting him over the head with her purse.

Steve, you know where to send the check... better yet, just send a MacPro that can author, burn, and play GD blu-ray video discs and an upgraded cinema display WITHOUT a glossy screen...:apple:
 
I have not read up a lot on the 10.6 rumors but i don't see it likely that they will be dropping PPC entirely. I can see them dropping the G4 but not the G5. I mean really, there are Quad core G5 still out there that should still be able to run the next major release of the OS. I see 10.6 being PPC and Intel but 10.7 moving to Intel only..



My thoughts exactly. I could see Apple saying something like: Any G5, or Intel based Mac with Firewire. I couldn't see them doing away with the G5's just yet, they at least have a 64 bit architecture which could handle a more advanced OS X.
 
I cant see the name (Snow Leopard) at all.
But thats just me:confused:

I kind of like the name in the context of what the rumor says will happen with this "update".

Snow = clean, fresh, natural
Leopard = what we currently have on our machines

So we are getting a clean version of 10.5 without all of the overhead that comes with legacy platform support. It's not for everyone, but the ones that can take advantage of it will get a much better version of Leopard.

I just hope that it is a free upgrade (like 10.0 to 10.1 was).

Hickman
 
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